Rain Water ? ? ?

[Scooter.B]

With all third rain we have been having in my area, I thought......
Does anyone collect rain water to use in their reef aquarium.
I was wondering if you could collect it and then run it thru your RODI and mix with your name brand salt.
Just curious.

 

[Rakie]

Rainwater is naturally collecting and getting filtered through the soil already, and making its way to a processing plant. You're unknowingly already doing your part!

 

[duberii]

I know with pools rainwater can introduce lots of phosphates, but if you're running it through a RODI unit you should be fine. Also, there's the possibility of acid rain, so maybe check your pH. Otherwise, if you have a good way to collect and store it, sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Flippers4pups]

This is a video that Rico did on tidal gardens new coral house they are building. It's designed to capture rain water in cisterns for their new tanks when installed. The size of the cisterns will blow you away!


28:00 mark is where they go outside to see the water collection site.

 

[cracker]

I tested some rain water off my roof. It had a tds of 2or3.

 

[Greybeard]

You run it through an RO/DI filter in good working order, you could use cattle pasture runoff and the tank would come out OK

The ocean's ATO system uses both rainwater, and runoff... the volume of the 'tank' leads to the kind of stability we can only dream about.

In my little microscopic (150 gallon) speck of reef, I'm pretty careful about what goes in it. Zero TDS RO/DI water gives me confidence that I'm not adding anything I don't want through ATO and water changes. Why use something you're unsure of?

 

[Flippers4pups]

You run it through an RO/DI filter in good working order, you could use cattle pasture runoff and the tank would come out OK

The ocean's ATO system uses both rainwater, and runoff... the volume of the 'tank' leads to the kind of stability we can only dream about.

In my little microscopic (150 gallon) speck of reef, I'm pretty careful about what goes in it. Zero TDS RO/DI water gives me confidence that I'm not adding anything I don't want through ATO and water changes. Why use something you're unsure of?

That's the key, you still need to use a RO/DI to "polish" the rain water, but the load on the cartridges and membrane would be very small. They would last substantially longer. No need to worry about chlorine and chloramines though!

 

[lapin]

My house water supply is rain water. 20,000 gal collection tank. Water comes off the roof and thru a bunch of filters. I still run it thru my rodi unit. In Texas we have acid rain but I have no issues. Well one issue. No rain this summer here. All around but not here. Take a shower once a week so the fish have enough water.

 

[Scooter.B]

Thank you all. Good insight. Will run a few gallons thru RODI and take some tests, see what comes of it.

 

[KrisReef]

The trick is to use a collector that is clean. My rooftop collects dirt and guano all summer and the first rain would probably be perfect plant fertilizer and horrible top off water.